Choosing a camera lens made easy—understand difference of camera lenses with respect to their types, features, and what suits your style best. We also covered lens recommendations in the end.
Introduction:
Your camera works with many different internal components that are interconnected to render an image or video, which we receive with just one button press. In all its components, the camera lens is the most important, as it is responsible for focusing light onto its sensor, turning what you see into a sharp image with clear details. It’s literally your camera’s and your creativity’s eye, and without it, you wouldn’t be able to capture anything.
These lenses come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and the type of lens you choose can significantly alter the look and feel of your photos. Selecting the right one is crucial to achieving the shots you want, which is why learning the difference of camera lenses is extremely important.
Difference of Camera Lenses by Specs:
1. Focal Length
The measure of how zoomed in your image is in the frame is the most common classification of camera lenses. Commonly termed in millimeters, the focal length can be short or long, as explained below.
2. Aperture
Your lens opening determines the depth of field in the image for a subject, which in turn dictates the separation of the subject and the bokeh behind it. Commonly expressed as f-numbers (f/1.8, f/4, etc.), this spec is one of prime concerns for professionals.
3. Lens Mount
Each brand typically works with a specific lens mount, which is also used to categorize lenses. Although adapters are fading this differentiation, the lens mount should be your concern, depending on the camera body you are using.
Difference of Camera Lenses by Type:
4. Prime Lenses
As the name suggests, these lenses are designed to be prime in their performance, and they achieve this by focusing only at one focal length. They are designed with many fewer glass elements and moving parts, and are optimized to render sharper images and produce fewer optical flaws, such as chromatic aberration.
5. Zoom Lenses
They can zoom and are not limited to a single focal length. Their internals are designed to provide a wide-angle view with a telephoto view by simply twisting the zoom ring, but are generally inferior in optical quality to prime lenses; however, this gap is now almost diminishing with the introduction of more expensive models.
2. Anamorphic Lenses:
Also known as cine lenses, professionals commonly use these to capture the cinematic footage we are all accustomed to enjoying in Hollywood movies. The optics of these lenses are designed to horizontally compress the image in the frame and then de-squeeze it to produce a unique cinematic aspect ratio, featuring added features such as creamy bokeh and horizontal flares within the frame.
Difference of Camera Lenses by Focal Length:
1. Standard Lenses
As we mentioned above, lenses are commonly classified based on their focusing length. Standard lenses are designed to mimic the human eye, with focal lengths ranging from 35 to 50mm. And they are quite commonly used for everyday photography.
2. Wide Lenses
As their name suggests, they can capture a wider frame and range from 10 to 35mm in focal length. They are commonly used to capture landscapes, architecture, and interiors.
3. Telephoto Lenses
Anything above 70mm zooms fall under the telephoto range and are designed to capture objects from a distance. Commonly used for sports, wildlife, and portraits with creamy bokeh, these lenses are usually large in size and bring objects closer to the shooter in their frame.
4. Macro Lenses
They have optics designed to capture near objects with high detail, not visible to the human eye. You will often see these lenses used for capturing textures, insects, flowers, and commercial products.
Factors to Consider Before Buying
1. If you plan to shoot outdoors and don’t want to carry a lot of weight around, zoom lenses are preferred. If you aim to do street photography with no distant objects, then a prime lens would do.
2. If you are shooting at night and are looking for better low-light performance, then aim for lenses with larger apertures like f/1.4, as they are also able to add dramatic background blur behind the subject.
3. Look for lens compatibility with your current camera body before buying a new lens.
4. If you are a beginner and want to shoot faraway objects, then invest in a standard zoom lens with 24-70mm or 18-45mm focal lengths, as they are cheaper.
5. In later stages of your creative journey, add a permanent prime lens tuned at 35mm or 85mm for portraits and creative shots to get the utmost quality. Add this lens, with another layer of specialty lenses as needed.
Lens Kit Recommendation for Creators
Nowadays, widescreen video and still images are becoming a standard, and creators are seeking optics to produce unique content and match cinema-grade quality. This is where the SIRUI Venus Full-Frame Anamorphic Lens kit comes in as an affordable and ultra-capable option for them this year.
The lens kit comes in 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, 100mm, and 135mm, covering all the scenes you might be looking to shoot, and delivers a 2.4:1 widescreen aspect ratio for each lens. The final video and stills have ultra-crisp details with beautiful horizontal lens flares just like the movies.
You also get an all-metal body, a wide lens mount compatibility, and a high cost-to-performance ratio for an already competitively priced lens kit. In the world of super-expensive brands and a saturated market, the SIRUI Venus presents itself as a highly capable lens option for creators and indie filmmakers this year.
Wrapping Up:
Understanding difference of camera lenses and their purpose will help you narrow down your next purchase. The SIRUI Venus lens kit is one of the highly ranked cinema hardware for this year, available at an accessible price.
